Common Orange Lichen is Uncommonly Beautiful to Me! :D

Have you ever gotten "nose-close" to a tree before? On many trees, you'll find all kinds of different lichen species growing on it, and this lichen is found all over the world. You'll notice it as orange smudges on branches, and if you get really close, you'll be able to appreciate how pretty it is! :)

Common Orange Lichen (Xanthoria parietina) is a foliose, or leafy, lichen. It has wide distribution, and many common names such as common orange lichen, yellow scale, maritime sunburst lichen and shore lichen. It can be found near the shore on rocks or walls (hence the epithet parietina meaning "on walls"), and also on inland rocks, walls, or tree bark. It was chosen as a model organism for genomic sequencing (planned in 2006) by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI). In the past it was used as a remedy for jaundice because of its yellow color. Wikipedia: Orange Lichen